Pavlov's 3 year old

Okay, so you know those dogs? The ones that salivated when they heard the bell? I have founf that three year olds can be conditioned similarly.

So, when E first made the transition from crib to bed, we had to put a child handle on the inside doorknob of his bedroom so he would not "escape." (He sometimes slept on the floor and not in the bed, but he did not by any means get away.) Recently we removed these Blessings from Heaven from his personal doorknobs. However, I have found that once we shut his door, he will not come out of his room unless we tell him to. (Insert Hallelujah Chorus here).

But here's the weird part: It's like he doesn't think he can open the door. Doo-doo-doo-doo. (Twilight Zone music if you couldn't tell).

Okay, I know that that's not exactly true, but take today for instance. I was totally tired from getting up early, so I decided that all in the house should take a nap. (Especially after S dropped the phone on my head as I attempted to sleep while trying to distract them with Teletubbies). So S went down fairly easily and E of course just played in his room. However, after being in there for an hour he started calling for me. He kept saying, "milk, please," and "Mommy, I would like some milk." Over and over and over again. I feared he would go down and try to get some himself, but he would not come out of his room. He would open his door, make his request and then shut it again.

It was not until I managed to wake myself up (do you ever try to wake up, but can't? It's a weird phenomena that happens to me sometimes-- I am aware of my surroundings, but I can not move or wake up, anyway) and call out to him that he actually came out of his room.

A similar thing happened on that other day. He was in his room, until he heard me crying on the phone to the hub, at which point he opened his door and asked, "What's the matter, dear?" (Funny in itself). But he still stood in his room until I told him he could come out.

So anyway. Maybe not that interesting to you. But I find amusement in it.